Cris Cyborg vs Holly Holm Nostradamus Prediction

       Cyborg by ko.  She is more confident in her power and ability to seriously hurt you.  I can't  say she is stronger than Holly, but when you're confident you're stronger.  Holly will have to fight more tactically than did Jorina Baars because if she absorbs the same punishment Jorina absorbed she'll be in trouble with those 4 oz gloves.  It seems more likely that Cyborg will do her thing than for Holly to fight a career defining fight.

       Holly has to use her legs by all means because Cyborg's past opponents were not even remotely as blessed with the legs of Holm.  She needs to harness her boxing experience to keep Cyborg from planting her feet.  Holly needs to attack Cris from angles and get back out to avoid counters.  

       Many people mention Holly's fight vs Shevchenko but Valentina does not fight like Cyborg.  Bullet, being a true 125 lb fighter, floats like a butterfly.  She was able to implement the same style on Holly that I recommend Holly use against Cyborg, and all the stars must be aligned.  IF Holly finds tht she can't stay away from Cyborg she shoudl do the unthinkable and actually walk Cyborg down.  Why?  Cyborg's ability to fight going backwards is unproven and it will be Holly's only chance.

       We also must remember than many people felt Holly beat Germaine.  At the very least we can admit that the first illegal shot landed after the bell on Holm was damaging enough to buckle Holly's knees.  Keep in mind that another late shot was landed after the bell.  Had a point been deducted, and had Holly not had to fight through recovery from those shots, she would have probably won the title.  

       In a nutshell, I don't believe we should look at Holly's previous losses nearly as hard as we should look at the new dynamic she presents to Cyborg.  It's usually easier to prepare for a pressure fighter than it is to prepare for a technician.  That said, Holly will still need to fight the fight of her life because she will also be against a force that is unlike any other she has faced in an octagon or boxing ring.  

Chael Sonnen Calls Jorina Baars a "journeyman fighter of no name or recognition"

       Reflecting on the upcoming fight between Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm, Chael Sonnen refers to Jorina Baars as a "journeyman fighter of no name or recognition".  That's right folks, arguably the best female Muay Thai fighter of this generation, who has a win over Cris Cyborg, has somehow remained a mystery to Chael Sonnen.  This is one of the very rare moments where the American gangster is uninformed.

       One would think that Chael would have taken 2 to 5 minutes to get a little more information on the only female to defeat Cyborg in a combat sport in the past thirteen years.    Chael Sonnen's youtube videos get tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of views, and I would not be surprised if Jorina Baars contacts Chael to speak with him about referring to her as a "journeyman fighter of no name or recognition" in front of tens to hundreds of thousands of people.  Once again we are grateful to Chael Sonnen for providing great entertainment, intentional or not.

Cris Cyborg is Beautiful

       It's fight week!  Only two days before Cris Cyborg defends her title against Holly Holm, and what is Cyborg doing?  She is helping to collect teddy bears for the kids, and continuing to be one of the most positive fighters in the UFC.

       Easily the most cyber bullied and verbally abused fighter in UFC history, Cyborg is a true role model in how she handles it.  This time she has encouraged her fans to donate a teddy bear for kids who are less fortunate and her fans responded.  A true mark of a beautiful person is weather or not they bring out the good in other people, and Cris does exactly that.

       No other fighter has had more negative things to say about Cyborg than Ronda Rousey.  Some may call Cyborg silly for saying positive things about Ronda, rather than taking advantage of Rondas epic fall to kick her while she is down.  It's obvious that Cris is not interested in holding onto negative energy, despite the fact that Ronda is largely responsible for building much of the same hatred that Cris deals with today.  Instead she wishes Ronda well and is even still willing to have a wrestling match with her, and is no doubt willing to make peace with a woman who clearly has a genuine dislike for her.

       Many people may cite Cyborgs altercation with Angela Megana as proof that Cyborg has a breaking point, but don't we all?  Magana was a prime example of how many fans have attacked Cyborg for no reason other than to try to hurt and embarrass her to make themselves feel better about their own flaws, and most fans were pleased to see Cyborg confront one of those bullies face to face.  In the words of Rose Namajunas, people should work harder to be a good person, especially to a woman like Cyborg who truly does her best to be positive in a world that thrives greatly on negativity.

Amanda Nunes And The Crippled Bantamweight Division

       The UFC women's bantamweight division is currently the least intriguing of all female divisions.  Amanda Nunes may hold onto her title for a while.  The only acceptable title contender right now is Ketlen Viera, who is currently ranked # 7.

       One would think that Amanda would take advantage of this opportunity to make some easy title defenses and build her championship resume, but it does not appear that she is ready to fight anytime soon.

       Ketlen Viera seems like the most qualified candidate for a title shot.  She has already made it public that she believes she can beat Nunes.  Her most recent win over Sara McMann ended by stoppage, and we saw some real grit by the Brazilian prospect as she had to weather a vicious storm administered by McMann.  It would be nice if Amanda gave the undefeated fellow country woman a shot, especially given the current state of the bantamweight division.

       It appears that 135 will be the least exciting in women's UFC for a while.  Meanwhile the strawweight division just got heated up as Rose Namajunas dethroned the former Strawweight Queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and as UFC recently signed the promising Yan Xiaonan, who is a former title holder in One FC, Road FC, URCC and WKF.

       We also have the currently developing flyweight division which is no doubt the most intriguing division at the moment with fighters like Nicco Montano, Sijara Eubanks, Valentina Shevchenko and other fighters all on a crash course with each other.  Even the featherweight division is offering more buzz than bantamweight with the upcoming fight between Holm and Cyborg.

       The other divisions are doing a great job of keeping things interesting until the first  UFC female division emerges from the ICU but it's no doubt in a deep coma at the moment.

Antonina Shevchenko Defeats Valerie Domergue

     Antonina Shevchenko adds another victory to her MMA resume after soundly defeating Valerie Domergue in a lopsided 3 round bout.  The fight started slow with Valerie using lateral movement, jumping in intermittently attempting to land shots but was unsuccessful.  By the midway point of the second round Valerie was in survival mode.  By the 3rd round it looked as if Valerie wanted to quit as Shevchenko was throwing fierce flurries and landing flush shots almost at will.  Domergue had absolutely no answers.

     This often seems to be the case with opponents of Antonina.  It's as if they see a totally different fighter in the fight than they saw during film study.  The counter striking skills of Antonina seemed to frustrate Valerie, which is another constant in Antonina's fights.  Even when she takes the lead her opponents seem unprepared to deal with the attack.  Their heads always end up snapping back from clean shots, and the sound of her shin smacking against their body echos across the arena and they simply have no answer.

     Such is the deception of Antonina Shevchenko.  The biggest difference between Antonina and Valentina is speed and framing.  Because of Antonina's larger body structure her strikes are not as dazzling to the eye, and are not framed in the picture perfect fashion as Valentina's strikes.  This is the deception, because what opponents don't understand is that Antonina has impeccable timing and accuracy.  For example, George Foreman in his later years was very VERY slow, but his timing was excellent.  As a result he was able to land a high percentage of his shots.  Speed is not as much of a factor as knowing when to release your shots.  When oppoents fight Antonina they find themselves getting hit constantly because she knows the exact time to release. Likewise, without great timing a fighter with great speed will not be as accurate.

     Thus, the greatness of the Shevchenko sisters is the combination of many elements.  Balance, timing, angles, positioning, distance management, and shot selection.  These traits are often difficult to detect on film, but they are very easy to detect when you're in an actual fight against either sister.  This is why opponents may think Antonina is not very dangerous when they look at her on film, but when they are in the fight they look bamboozled, and seem unprepared to deal with her offense.

     People may not fully understand how great Antonina is until she is in the octagon deconstructing their favorite UFC fighter.  She is a technician.  She takes the first 2 to 5 minutes to process her opponents style and capabilities and then begins to deconstruct them.  Valerie is lucky that fight was scheduled for only 3 rounds.  She started opening up and landing shots on Valerie soo comprehensively that there were moments in the third round where it looked like she wanted to the referee to step in.  She had started to deteriorate from the punishment at the same time that Antonina was just getting warmed up.  Had that fight been set for five rounds it's hard to imagine how Valerie would have made it to the final bell.  Congratulations to Antonina on a brilliant and beautiful performance, and we look forward to seeing her back in action again.

Valentina Shevchenko vs Priscila Chachoeira

     

     At first glance this looks like a mismatch of the highest magnitude.  The first question most people will ask is "who is Priscila Cachoeira?".  A quick Youtube search of her name will provide a few films of her fights where you will see her engaged in brawls, not technical execution.  She marches forward throwing hard punches with very little head movement.  Against low level competition, her opponents often draws blood from her face but she has managed to accumulate 8 wins with no defeats.  

     You can bet your bottom dollar that Shevchenko is not underestimating her regardless of how much of an amateur Priscila may appear on film.  Priscila is a training partner of Jessica Andrede, and it shows in her fighting style.  This fight will take place in Priscila's home country of Brasil, so not only will she be fighting in honor of her country, she'll also likely fight in honor of fellow country woman and nemesis of Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes, who we all can expect to voice her support of Priscila before the fight.  It is very likely that Priscila is not going to be as hesitant to attack Valentina as Nunes was in their rematch.  She will likely try to prove herself by going after Shevchenko and forcing her to fight hard.

     Priscila may not have the skill or experience to even be a good sparing partner for Valentina but rest assured that Priscila will fight with all of her heart.  This is not only her UFC debut, it is also possibly the toughest opponent she has ever faced and ever will face in her career.  She has everything to gain and nothing to lose so she will leave it all in the cage.  For these reasons it is crucial that Valentina treats Priscila as dangerous of an opponent as was Holm, Pena, and Nunes.

I expect Priscila to keep marching forward throwing wide slow hooks from mid range while getting hit with flush by Valentina with counter and lead shots.  I expect Valentina to lose patience with the amateur style of Priscila and press the issue, possibly turning her face into a bloody mess.  Priscila bleeds often because of her style.  While there is a possibility that Priscila will fight on the outside, after catching a few counter shots, I doubt it will happen.  I believe the pressure of being in front of her home crowd, and fighting such a highly ranked WMMA fighter fresh off a controversial loss against her fellow country woman will provoke Priscila to keep coming forward regardless of how much punishment she is taking.  It should be an exciting fight, but I fully expect Bullet to emerge victorious, most likely by stoppage. 

Joanna Jedrzejczyk says weight cut impaired her performance

Joanna Jedrzejczyk spoke with Low Kings, a Polish outlet, and she had this to say:

       “People I worked with led me to critical condition. Now I’m just happy that I’m alive. I was screaming. It didn’t matter it was very late. The pain of putting my body back again in hot water was unimaginable. But I wanted to do it for everybody who wanted to see my fight. It’s a miracle I made weight. I was cutting weight for 14 hours. It was torture. I trusted them. Unfortunately they failed and this mistake is unforgivable. I forgive them as a human because that’s who I am and probably our relationship will remain but I can’t cooperate with such people any more.”

       After reading this a few things may jump out at you.  After Joanna made weight in camp she posted this on twitter.

        If Perfecting Athletes did such an unprofessional job why would she give them props after making weight?  These are the people she claimed led her to "critical condition" and subjected her to "torture" to the point where she "was screaming".  Why would she all of a sudden, after all that, post a pic on twitter praising them?  After cutting weight several times in the UFC, couldn't she tell that something was wrong with this particular weight cut?  She also seemed to be feeling good at the weigh in.

       Only she knows what she went through, so we're in no position to call her a liar, but if she is telling the truth then she has an incredible ability of hiding any signs of having been near critical condition after a torturous weight cut that had her screaming.  

       To her credit, she did mention to Ariel in a post fight interview that she felt slow during her warm up, but didn't understand why.  Again, if she just went through such a horrific weight cut it should have been obvious why she felt slow.  She first started cutting down to 115 when she joined the UFC.  In her first UFC fight she hit 115.0.  In her next 4 fights she weighed in between 114.0 and 114.5.  In her last 2 fights she just made weight at 115.0 against Namajunas and Andrede.  At 30 years old, the difficulty of making weight may not have anything to do with errors made by Perfecting Athletes.  Her body is fighting these weight cuts and wants to fill out to the natural weight she had been fighting at between 2006 and 2014, which is flyweight (125 lbs).  

       Another thing to note is that Joanna blows up to about 135 to 140 or more between fights.  This means to make 115 she is cutting between 11% and 15% of her total bodyweight.  This may work for other fighters, but everybody's body is different, and she is likely draining herself to a very unnatural weight.  Keep in mind that she is taller and has longer limbs than nearly all her past UFC opponents.  So what's the next move?  She wants to drain herself yet again to fight for the strawweight title.  Nothing is final at the moment, but lets hope she makes the safe decision. The last thing anybody should be doing the day after draining their body is getting hit in the head.   

Beware of Yan Xiaonan

      

       For those who don't believe fighters are a threat if they're not ranked in the top 15 of their division think again.  Former Road FC fighter and China born native Yan Xiaonan, who is now signed with the UFC, is a serious threat to any strawweight in the top 15, including the newly crowned champion Rose Namajunas, and former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.  With an aggressive fan friendly style, she is sure to put on a show each time. Anybody she fights will have a serious problem.  She has held titles in One FC, Road FC, URCC and the gold title in WKF.

       Her side kick is prolific, and she catches every opponent flush in the face at some point in the fight.  It has very little telegraph, and she launches it with blistering speed and accuracy.

       Her ground game is functional, but not as proven as her stand up, which is highly formidable.  She dedicates to her leg work when she wants, as seen against Curran when Curran was sent to the canvas by a sweep.  After her only loss in 2010 she appears to have been inactive until 2015, and she is back as strong as ever.

       She has faster hands than might appear on camera.  She doesn't have the longest reach but she knows how to close the distance let her hands go.  She also has pretty good counter striking, but as with many UFC fighters she has a tendency to leave her head stationary.  Overall, she is a well balanced explosive fighter with an extraordinary stand up game.  Her balance, timing and accuracy is note worthy.

       She seems dedicated to her craft and very well schooled.  She is a student of Sanda, an ancient Chinese martial art that evolved from Kung Fu and later developed by Shaolin Monks.  Fans can rest assured that she is going to put everything into each fight and give them their moneys worth.  She doesn't have much experience going 5 rounds, and she has not even gone 3 rounds many times so pacing may be at the center of her UFC development training program, but make no mistake, Xioanan is underrated in the UFC rankings and she is well capable of being a UFC champion.

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